An integrated circuit is expected to provide a trade off between performance (throughput, speed) and power consumption.
Various power reductions techniques include differential voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), and power gating. DFVS alters the voltage supply level and the frequency of clock signals that are provided to a circuit while power gating involves shutting down the entire circuit or selected portions of that circuit.
Changing the state of the circuit from one state to another is associated with various power penalties. Some penalties can be associated with charging and discharging one or more decoupling capacitors of the circuit.